Learning Evaluation of the Disability Rights Fund

The Disability Rights Fund (DRF) is a partnership between funders and the disability community that provides grants and other support for work at country-level towards the realisation of rights affirmed in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. DRF believes that enhancing the participation of persons with disabilities in the realisation of their rights will have an impact on poverty among persons with disabilities.In 2012, DRF conducted its first external evaluation. The evaluation, which was conducted by Universalia, concluded with an overall positive assessment of the Fund's performance, highlighting the Fund's relevance and progress towards its stated results. In 2013, DRF concluded another partnership agreement with DFID of the duration of 3 years. Both as part of the conditions set in this partnership agreement and as DRF being a learning-oriented organization, DRF launched a call for proposals to conduct a learning evaluation, consisting of two interrelated components: the development or adjustment of DRF's tools for data collection, recording, and management; and the mid-term evaluation of DRF grantmaking operations.The Learning Evaluation had the following objectives: i) provide an update on progress made towards the achievement of the output-, outcome- and impact-level results in DRF's logical framework; ii) identify DRF's contributions to results achieved and factors affecting performance; iii) make an overall assessment of DRF's value for money; and iv) provide DRF staff with a clear set of lessons learned to improve current interventions and guide future ones

Cybercrime: the industry of anonymity

The central theme of this thesis is that cybercrime has matured into a large profitdriven industry. Hobby hackers still exist and hacktivists have attracted some attention in recent years, but a very significant component of contemporary cybercrime is now financially motivated. While its goods and services are usually illicit, the cybercrime industry operates according to the same broad principles of industrial organisation observed across numerous other contexts. But the development of this industry is somewhat puzzling. Ostensibly much cybercriminal cooperation takes place online. As a result, cybercriminals are often partnering with online criminals whose true identities are unknown to them. They also have no means of physical enforcement should deals go awry. Partnering with conventional criminals, who operate outside the protection of the state, already appears to present significant challenges for cooperation. The challenge of anonymity makes cooperation even more difficult and suggests that cybercriminals would often act alone, or in small groups. Instead a large successful industry has formed. This thesis first addresses the industrialisation of cybercrime. It then addresses this puzzle of how cybercriminals have overcome the challenges to cooperation to build an industry on such a scale

Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy

The Dark Web or DarkNet has attracted both considerable media and scholarly attention. This forms part of a broader tradition of analyzing relatively open cybercriminal marketplaces and forums. With the aid of data collected over a 7-year period, the focus of this paper is to help demarcate - beyond the Dark Web alone - all the layers within the world of profit-driven cybercrime. These include: 1) the top layer, which is the most open forums and marketplaces, whether Dark Web or otherwise; 2) the middle layer of more closely vetted forums; 3) the bottom layer of even smaller and more closed groupings; 4) the molten core, which is centered on the offline organization of cybercrime. The purpose of this analysis is to identify key aspects of the underground economy which warrant further scholarly attention, and to suggest possible approaches to engage with these subjects going forward

The Nexus of Equality and Quality in Education: A Framework for Debate

Valverde (1988) claims that the general public and many educators believe it is extremely difficult if not impossible simultaneously to provide excellent education to majority youngsters and to provide equality of opportunity to ethnic and racial minority students. We explore the paradox these two major goals present, namely that schools should promote both equality and quality but cannot foster both goals at once. We argue that the apparent antithesis of equality and quality results from mutually exclusive definitions obscuring the true relationship between the two constructs. In place of these definitions, we offer a model demonstrating that equality and quality are not only compatible but mutually supportive and enhancing. Selon Valverde (1988), le public et de nombreux éducateurs estiment qu’il est très difficile, sinon impossible, d’offrir à la fois une excellente éducation à une majorité de jeunes et l’égalité des chances aux élèves des minorités ethniques ou raciales. Dans cet article, les auteurs analysent le paradoxe qui résulte de ces deux objectifs clés, paradoxe qui se formule comme suit: l’école devrait promouvoir l’égalité et la qualité, mais il lui serait impossible de réaliser les deux à la fois. Les auteurs avancent que l’opposition apparente entre l’égalité et la qualité résulte de définitions mutuellement exclusives qui embrouillent le lien véritable entre les deux visées éducatives. En place et lieu de ces définitions, les auteurs proposent un modèle démontrant que l’égalité et la qualité sont non seulement compatibles, mais complémentaires et mutuellement enrichissants.

Countering distrust in illicit online networks : the dispute resolution strategies of cybercriminals

The core of this paper is a detailed investigation of the dispute resolution system contained within Darkode, an elite cybercriminal forum. Extracting the dedicated disputes section from within the marketplace, where users can report bad behaviour and register complaints, we carry out content analysis on these threads. This involves both descriptive statistics across the dataset and qualitative analysis of particular posts of interest, leading to a number of new insights. First, the overall level of disputes is quite high, even though members are vetted for entry in the first instance. Second, the lower ranked members of the marketplace are the most highly represented category for both the plaintiffs and defendants. Third, vendors are accused of malfeasance far more often than buyers, and that their “crimes” are most commonly either not providing the product/service or providing a poor one. Fourth, the monetary size of the disputes is surprisingly small. Finally, only 23.1% of disputes reach a clear outcome

Evaluating a complex research capacity-building intervention: reflections on an evaluation of the African Institutions Initiative

Increasing policy demand for realist evaluations of research and capacity-building programmes reflects a recognition of the management, governance and impact gains that can result from evaluation. However, the evidence base on how to successfully implement realist evaluations of complex interventions in international development efforts is scarce. We know little about the associated merits, limitations and ways to mitigate challenges. There is a need for reflective work which considers the methodology in context. This paper shares learning from the experience of conducting a realist, theory-of-change driven evaluation of the African Institutions Initiative, a Wellcome Trust funded programme which aimed to build sustainable health research capacity in Africa at institutional and network levels, across seven research consortia. We reflect on the key challenges experienced throughout the evaluation and recommend ways of managing them, highlight opportunities and critical success factors associated with this evaluation approach, as well as elaborate on alternative evaluation approaches

Entretien avec Charles Lusthaus

Version anglaise dans la biliothèque: In conversation : Charles Lusthau

In conversation : Charles Lusthaus

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Entretien avec Charles Lusthau

Constitutivism

A brief explanation and overview of constitutivism